May they reject all systems and try liberty

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Queuing & The National Archives

This past weekend, I was in Washington D.C., the capital of these United States, to witness the swearing-in ceremony of a class of foreign service officers with the Department of State. While there, I also went with my family to visit the National Archives. I had never seen the actual Declaration of Independence, the actual Constitution, or the actual Bill of Rights. But because they are so important to our conception of liberty in the United States, I very much wanted to read their faded script myself. These simple pieces of paper, almost 250 years old, hold great meaning, and my visit to see them was heavy with a joyous solemnity. I was reminded of all the sacrifice poured out generation after generation so that I could live in a country ruled by those documents. Those pieces of paper had cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of men and women who deserved remembrance. After several minutes reading the faded words, I walked out with two conclusions.

Freedom is not easy – Men for thousands of years have dedicated their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” to ensure the spread of liberty for others. Our founding fathers were not the first, and they certainly were not the last. Millions have sacrificed greatly to put me at the keyboard today, writing this article for you to read. Millions have fought with pen and with sword to see liberty dawn upon a new day. Freedom is that important, which is what led me to my second conclusion.

Many people have little idea how important freedom is – As my family and I stood in line, we saw a number of people who simply wandered up to the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, glanced quickly over someone’s shoulder and walked out of the rotunda. They had seen the Constitution. That, however, is not seeing the Constitution. Too many have given too much to simply walk past it like a poster hanging in a dorm room hallway. That is one of the reasons Trying Liberty is here. We want to help spread the word about liberty. We want people to know just how important freedom is. So, please, join us in telling others about how incredibly crucial it is to protect the innate freedom of every individual. Society depends on it.